Size, Shape & Morphology Controlled Nanocatalysis

Nanomaterials are one of those discoveries that have recently been developed to limits that scientists would have never dreamt of a century ago. The focus of this project is on “Size, Shape and Morphology Controlled Nanocatalysis”. We propose to design and synthesize, range of shape and morphology controlled nanomaterials (silica, metals, oxides, MOFs). We will then probe their activities for various important catalytic reactions like C-H activation, oxidation, hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, CO2 capture-conversion to fine chemicals, and environmental remediation. To address some of the key challenges of catalytic technologies outlined above, this projects specific objective is developing new nanomaterial-based catalyst that exhibit improved activity and reduced mass transfer limitations. A guiding hypothesis is that access to highly reactive catalytic sites can be controlled by varying shape and morphology of nanomaterials.Results
from this research will advance the development of practical and sustainable
nano-catalytic technologies. Results from the work will add to our fundamental
understanding of dependence of activity and selectivity of nano-catalyst on its
shapes and exposed facets. The insight gained from these structural studies can
be then exploited to further improve the catalyst systems through the concept
of “catalyst-by-design”. In addition, research results will also help to
overcome practical issues related to the deployment of catalyst technologies
for various challenging reactions such as C-H activation, oxidation,
hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, and environmental remediation including CO2
capture and conversion to fine chemicals. Although nano-catalytic technologies
have often been shown to be very promising under idealized laboratory
conditions, success of these approaches at industry scale has been limited due
to stability of the catalyst. To overcome these limitations, it is critical
that we develop both preventative and regenerative strategies for improving
catalyst longevity and sustainability. We anticipate that the novel
nanostructure supports developed in this project will help us begin to
understand how to tailor catalyst support and active site structures to enhance
its catalytic activity as well as stability. It is our expectation that the proposed
research will significantly improve the performance and longevity of
nano-catalysts and help for the development of catalytic processes as next
generation technologies.